So-called “traffic delineators” (also known as “traffic delineation safety markers”) are well known that are positioned alongside highway work zones to define lines of demarcation that separate the work zones from highway lanes where traffic is maintained while construction and repair work is underway inside the work zones.
Most traffic delineators in present-day use are formed from relatively lightweight plastic materials that have hollow, upstanding configurations that taper so as to narrow as they extend upwardly, thereby permitting identically configured traffic delineators to be nested one atop another to form nested stacks.
One common configuration of present-day traffic delineator takes the form of such hollow barrel-like members as are disclosed in the group of seventeen patents that follow—namely U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,794,172, 6,786,673, 6,478,505, 6,019,542, 5,868,520, 5,234,280, 5,201,599, 4,973,190, 4,710,053, 4,674,431, 4,083,033, 3,952,690, D-486,089, D-481,965, D-243,075, D-243,073 and D-229,784, the disclosures of which patents are incorporated herein in their entireties, by reference.
The barrel-like traffic delineators disclosed in the group of seventeen patents listed just above have closed, relatively smaller diameter upper end regions, with sidewalls that generally taper and/or are of stepped diameter as they depend to form relatively larger diameter, open bottom end regions that permit identical ones of the barrel-like delineators to be stacked one atop another to form vertically nested stacks that often are transported atop the beds of commercially available flat bed trucks.
The referenced utility application Ser. No. 14/913,562 discloses a complete so-called “crash truck” that has a flat bed atop which workers can ride while collecting barrel-like traffic delineators. The crash truck is designed to facilitate the lowering of barrel-like delineators from the flat bed to one or more workers who occupy so-called “man baskets” alongside the flat bed of the crash truck for receiving barrel-like delineators from workers atop the flat bed of the crash truck, and for positioning the delineators at spaced intervals alongside a roadway work zone to divert and guide traffic alongside the work zone while or prior to when roadway repair and/or construction work is conducted within the work zone.
When work within the work zone is completed, the crash truck is again driven alongside the work zone so that traffic delineators that have been residing at spaced at intervals alongside the work zone can be retrieved as the crash truck moves alongside the work zone. Workers riding atop the flat bed of the crash truck collect the barrel-like delineators as a worker or workers in one or more “man baskets” raise and collect the barrel-like delineators from alongside the work zone.
The present invention provides an over-cab rack structure (and assemblies of the over-cab rack structure) that are designed to receive, store and transport one or more generally horizontally extending nested stacks of substantially identically configured barrel-like traffic delineators, with the stack or stacks extending generally forwardly-rearwardly atop the cab of an associated truck.
The over-cab rack structures of the present invention address and alleviate the problem of too many traffic delineators being collected and assembled in nested stacks atop the flat bed of a crash truck after being removed from alongside a roadway work zone. If too many traffic delineators collect atop the flat beds crash trucks, vertically nested stacks of the delineators tend to shift about the flat beds, with at least some of the stacks tending to overturn. Attempting to limit the movement of these nested stacks by the use of ropes, cables and chains can cause personnel to trip, stumble and fall as these restraining devices and the stacks of nested traffic delineators become loosened and also move about the flat beds of the trucks.
An alternative to supporting vertically extending nested stacks of traffic delineators atop the flat beds of trucks is shown in FIG. 1 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,219,141, wherein a frame 12 is shown supporting a horizontally extending nested stack of traffic cones atop the bed of a pickup truck 10. The frame 12 is hung from a horizontally extending member 46 that overlies the bed of the pickup truck 10, and can be moved horizontally along the horizontally extending member 16 as a horizontally extending nested stack of traffic cones increases in length as more and more traffic cones are sequentially added to the nested stack. The disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 4,219,141 is incorporated herein, in its entirety, by reference.